Wedding Dress
by sweetatoo
Summary: Beside her obvious wish to die after their contract's completed, there is another one that she keeps a sacred secret, one that she will never, ever, admit.


Lelouch kept on walking on the sidewalk full of pedestrians until Shirley stopped him by exclaiming excitedly, "Look, Lulu!"

He stopped in his tread, turned his head around, found his orange-haired companion by a display window of a shop. An expression of awe was evident on her face as she put both hands on said display window.

Curiously, he walked over and stood by her side. "What is it, Shirley?"

They had just left a winery shop and were on the way home when this happened.

Shirley turned to look at him. Her green eyes were sparkling and her cheeks flushed. "Isn't it beautiful?" she asked him while motioning with her head toward the sight on the other side of the transparent window. Lelouch followed her gaze.

A pure white, low-cut, strapless and sleeveless wedding dress donned by a mannequin stared back at him. The mannequin's shapely figure and elegant pose advertised the gentle, silky flow of the long gown. Lelouch couldn't see its back, but he assumed the dress showed a generous amount of the bride's back.

"What a gorgeous dress," Shirley was saying. Her hands clasped together. Without Lelouch's knowledge, she quickly stole a glance at him when she said, "I'd love to wear this in the future."

He only smiled in return, then asked if there were anything else she wanted to get before they headed back. Shirley shook her head, and they were soon on their way. Little did Lelouch know that she kept stealing glances at him with a disappointed look on her face. Apparently, a smile wasn't enough.

* * *

"Really, Lelouch, you need to get your magazines updated," said the green-haired witch in that lazy, monotonous and sarcastic tone of hers. No sooner than the doors to the Black Knights' headquarters slid open that Lelouch was awarded with such remark.

Sighing, so used to this, he just quietly went on his way to put the shopping bag on the floor near the couch on which C.C. was lounging. She eyed said object before returning her gaze toward the magazine clutched gently in her long, slender fingers.

When C.C. didn't hear a reply from him, she prompted, "Went on a little shopping spree with your girlfriend, I see."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Your boyfriend, then?"

"Stop it, C.C."

"What is she, then?"

He sighed as he sat down next to her and ruffled his hair. "Why does it matter to you?" he queried with slightly raised raven brows.

"Your affair with her is interesting," replied the witch absentmindedly as she flipped a page equally absentmindedly. "And since I have nothing else better to do than to wait aimlessly for your orders, I decided to make it my business." A smirk slowly crawled on her face, and it sent a chill down his spine. Lelouch shivered.

"There are better things to do, C.C.," he said sharply. He really didn't want the witch to dwell on his personal business because the results never came out satisfying.

"Hm."

Lelouch's eyes befell the page on which C.C. was leisurely reading.

"Must be a trend now," he remarked.

She lifted her gaze to look at him. Lelouch gestured toward the white gown in the center of the page. "The dress," he said. "I saw it with Shirley earlier. Apparently, it seems to be in high demand now."

"Girls and their fantasies. Utterly pointless."

He wrinkled his brows. "So what does that make you?"

She returned his question with a sly smirk. "A shrewd witch. Come on, Lelouch, we've already established that."

* * *

Lelouch loathed waking up in the middle of the night just to try to finish his rally speech. Ruffling his soft, ever so slightly disheveled, raven locks, he rubbed his tired eyes with his knuckles, yawned, stretched, shook his head to get rid of the sleepiness, then forced his mind to focus on the task at hand.

It was 3:30 in the morning. Everything was quiet. The only audible sounds were those of his pencil scribbling on a piece of paper, and his occasional weary sighs. Then…

Sounds of pages being flipped?

His hand halted immediately as he strained his ears to listen. Everyone should be sleeping right now – well, it's only him and his witch in the headquarters, and there's no reason for her to be awake. He slowly, soundlessly pushed the chair back to stand up, then walked over to the door to his bedroom, opened it slightly, a crack even, just enough to see what's going on on the other side. His eyes widened a bit.

It was almost four in the morning, yet there she was. Her long, lime hair formed a shiny curtain around her slender frame, her legs bent under her. She was dressed in her usual pajamas, aka Lelouch's shirt and her own panties, and she was sitting on the floor. In front of her was the familiar magazine about which she had complained earlier. She wasn't flipping pages anymore; she's just simply staring at a page, or rather a picture of some sort. However, as the candle next to the magazine flickered briefly, Lelouch could see exactly what she was looking at, and he fancied that he saw a longing look flash in her bright, illuminating golden orbs.

* * *

"Whoa, where are you going? The speech is about to begin soon," Kallen said when she spotted the witch strolling in the hallway. It was this fateful morning that Lelouch would be delivering his rally speech in an effort to garner public support. He had been preparing ages for this. It would be truly the turning point for the Black Knights, and she should have been there, by his side, but then she thought…

"There's no use for me here," answered C.C. lazily. "He can do it on his own." When Kallen's about to open her mouth to protest, the witch continued, "Mind you, not a lot of the Black Knights members are in love with me. They're calling me all sorts of names behind my back – now, you don't have to pretend that you know nothing about it – but anyway, if they could kill me without jeopardizing the mission, then I'm willing to bet all the pizza in the world that they would try already." And C.C. finished with, "I'm good being gone for the moment. Later."

Before Kallen could think of a response, the witch already disappeared around the corner.

* * *

C.C. was wearing a blond wig with emerald green contact lenses. Her artificial hair was so straight and flowing and simply breathtaking that it drew whistles from men and hisses from women, but she couldn't care less.

As she was taking a walk in the city, C.C. realized that the last time she went out in public being herself was eons ago. Her wig was itchy and her eyes became dry due to the contacts. Oh how she wished she could just take everything off right then and there - that is, her wig and lenses.

Then, something in the display window caught her eye.

C.C. stopped in her track, gazed up at the white wedding dress. A small gust of wind blew by, sending strands of her wig flying around her. For the very first time since she got the Code, C.C. allowed herself to be put in a normal girl's fantasy, and a tiny smile stretched out on her pretty face.

* * *

"Where have you been?" asked Lelouch with a frown on his face as soon as the green-haired witch entered the headquarters. She had already shed the wig and the lenses before.

"Out" was her answer before she flopped down on the couch, reached down to get some magazines, and her hands found…

"Where is it?" asked C.C. as she quickly looked at him.

Lelouch returned her stare innocently, "What?"

"The magazine. Where did you put it?"

"Oh that?" He sat back in his char and crossed his arms. "I recycled everything."

"What?"

He shrugged before smirking, "Well, you did say to update the magazines. Those are pretty old, C.C.-

"They're recent." The words felt like venom when they left her lips.

"Not on _your_ standard," countered Lelouch. "I figured since no one's reading it anymore, I might as well recycle it and save our dying environment."

"So what? The Demon King is also a nature savior now?"

"Why do you care, witch? You never liked reading those magazines anyway. Didn't you say they were "utterly pointless" fantasies of girls?"

"But I-" She clamped her mouth shut.

Lelouch leaned forward. "But what?"

C.C. pressed her pink lips together, furrowed her delicately shaped green brows, then huffed as she strode away. "What a childish boy."

Lelouch's gaze followed her. "I don't think I'm the childish one here, C.C.," he called after her.

When the door to her bedroom slid shut, Lelouch's right hand reached down and his fingers brushed against the thin cover of a magazine. He slowly pulled it up, and as he flipped the pages, a knowing smirk made its way onto his face.

'

"_Girls love those kinds of things," Nunnally had said during one of their tea times. "Weddings, dresses, flowers, maids of honor, best men." She had giggled. "The wedding is the most sacred ceremony in a girl's life."_

"But she's not just any girl, Nunnally," Lelouch whispered to himself that night when he was laying in bed with arms resting behind his head. "She's a shrewd witch who deserves to be happy for once. What should I do, Nunnally?"

* * *

He had another meeting, she knew. C.C. had already prepared everything for him, from paperwork to materials needed for the presentation. All she had to do was being there, but like when he'd given his rally speech, she decided to be absent, to not be an eyesore to the other Black Knights members.

And she couldn't stop herself from going to that display window where the mannequin was donning that beautiful and elegant wedding dress.

She was too absorbed in her task of sightseeing that she hadn't noticed a man coming up behind her.

"Not so shrewd now, are you?"

Startled, C.C. slightly jumped back and sort of elbowed the man in the stomach. He grunted before catching her right arm gently. "That hurt," he squinted.

"Lelouch!" He was wearing his casual clothes, with a black hat with its brim covering his face, shadowing his bright violet eyes underneath the long bangs. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.

He let go of her arm, pulled the hat's brim lower before replying to her. "The meeting ended early and I didn't see you there, so I went looking for you."

"How did you know to find me here?" inquired C.C. with a raised brow, to which he shrugged.

"Lucky guess, I suppose," said Lelouch. He then looked up at the mannequin on the pedestal before turning his gaze toward the witch. A smirk slowly lifted a corner of his lips.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" he asked in that annoyingly mocking tone of his, and she huffed, crossing her arms.

"You're wrong, boy," said C.C. coldly. "I just happened to pass by here and remembered what you told me." She threw such a distasteful look at the dress that it made Lelouch wince inside. "What a pointless thing," commented C.C. before she took off unexpectedly.

He didn't follow her.

* * *

The next day, Lelouch didn't hesitate to give her an errand to run.

"Take Kallen if you don't want to be lonely," he had said before they parted ways.

"Loneliness is my best friend," said C.C. offhandedly. He chuckled, then went on his way. So did she.

A few hours later…

"Just proceed as planned," C.C. said into the phone as she was walking back toward the headquarters. "Zero's order." With that, she hung up the phone.

When the doors slid open, she stepped in and stopped short. On the small coffee table lay a big, white and rectangular box with a red bow tied in the middle. C.C. approached it, saw a small card, and read aloud, "Open it, witch, even though I know you'll still open it without permission."

A curious expression quickly dominated her features. Her brows knitted slightly in concentration as her long, slender fingers worked their magic.

'

Later, when Lelouch had finished his own errands, he came back to the headquarters. However, before he went inside, Lelouch played around on the control panel just to the right of the main doors.

The doors slid open, he stepped in, and…

C.C. slowly turned around, Lelouch stopped in his tracks. The doors slid closed, clicked 'locked.' A small smile broke out on his face at the sight in front of him.

"Lelouch…" C.C. began.

"Wait." Lelouch put up a hand to stop her. Then, he turned around, took off his mask, put it on the couch, shed his jacket only to reveal…

C.C. couldn't suppress a gasp at the sight in front of her.

He turned back, spread out his arms and smiled brightly for the very first time ever since he got his memory back. "Shall we begin?" he asked as he took a few steps toward her.

Lelouch picked up the Cheese-kun plush toy on the couch as he went over to her. And C.C. remained speechless as she watched him position said toy on his working desk, pull out a recorder from the pocket of his black tuxedo, and place it between the Cheese-kun's short, stuffy legs. Also, Lelouch took out a white boutonniere, smirked at her baffled expression, and pinned it on the left lapel of his suit. Then, he reached down to grab her right hand - her wrist was beautifully adorned by a corsage. The rare smile was still there when he spoke, "Are you ready, C.C.?"

C.C., the endless and shrewd witch, dressed in an elegant, pure white, low-cut, strapless and sleeveless wedding gown, had the words taken right out of her mouth, and could only nod in response.

"Alright." Lelouch reached over and pressed PLAY on the recorder.

A deep voice emitted from it. "Lelouch Lamperouge, will you take C.C. here as your wife?"

C.C. couldn't recognize the voice, but she was too dazed to even care whose voice it was.

Lelouch took her other hand, and squeezed them gently. "Yes, I will." His mesmerizing smile never faltered.

"C.C., will you take Lelouch Lamperouge here as your husband?"

Now, when she thought back about it, it surprised her how fast she had responded then.

"Yes, I will," said C.C, sounding unwavering.

"Now you may exchange the rings."

"So formal, aren't we?" chuckled C.C. as she watched him reach into his pocket again to pull out a pair of silver bands.

"You're ruining the mood, witch," said Lelouch. However, a note of playfulness was clearly evident in his tone, causing her to chuckle again.

"Here." He slid a band onto her ring finger, and she quickly did the same for his. They then looked at each other for a second before the recording voice broke the silence again. "Very well. I now announce you husband and wife. Lelouch, you may kiss the bride."

Carefully, Lelouch lifted up the veil that had been covering her face the entire time, and noted with surprise that the cold-hearted witch was actually blushing! Her pale cheeks were painted pink, and she bit down on a small part of her lower lip. Her eyes were studying his movement, as if she were so innocent that she had no idea how to proceed. For once, for the very first time, and probably the last time, the witch emitted shyness and reserve.

"Damn it."

Lelouch pulled her close to him so unexpectedly that she let out a surprised gasp before his lips hungrily found hers. His tongue swiftly explored her mouth as her fingers found a handful of his soft, raven locks. Their bodies pressed so close together as if they wanted to merge into one.

After a while, they broke loose, yet still maintained that personal distance, with Lelouch's arms around C.C.'s slender waist, and her arms around his neck. Their breathings were uneven as they were taking in the moment, relishing it, believing that for once, life was simple and that inside these walls, they were safe and separated from the suffering and pain and heartaches.

"Why were you so confident that I would wear the dress?" C.C. asked, breaking the silence. He looked down at her, smiling slightly.

"I wasn't," answered Lelouch. "If you decided not to wear the dress, I wouldn't know what to do." He shrugged. "In that case, I guess we would just have to continue on as if nothing happened, as if the box didn't exist."

"I see." C.C. pondered for a second before saying, "So where are you taking us for our honeymoon, my Demon King?"

A chuckle escaped Lelouch's lips. He motioned with his head toward his bedroom. "Given the circumstances, I guess that will have to do. My sincerest apologies."

C.C. stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss at the corner of his mouth. "All's good," she whispered.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass.**

**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot :) Thank you so much for reading! Reviews are always appreciated!


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